


a tall drink of water

by ornategrip



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-31
Updated: 2012-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-30 09:36:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/330315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ornategrip/pseuds/ornategrip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Girl!Barry wants Roddy. She just... doesn't know how to get him.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For this prompt on the grimm kink meme: http://grimm-kink.dreamwidth.org/1735.html?thread=602567#cmt602567

Supermodels were tall.

And thin, super thin.

Berry had the height but not the weight. Or maybe she had too much of the weight. She was a big girl all over, tall and intimidating and she didn’t want to be.

“An Amazon!” T.B. would crow, while slapping her on her back. “Our very own Xena: Warrior Princess.”

“You’re beautiful.” Jason would tell her. “Don’t let those assholes get you down.”

It didn’t help. Being tall sounded awesome until you were the only girl towering over every boy in the class, until girls made fun of you for being too much of a tomboy and boys ran away because you were so much bigger than them.

When Berry had shot up in height in the seventh grade, her mother had beamed at her.

“Tall, just like your grandmother! Just like a Jägerbar should be!”

And her father had just absently kissed her forehead on the way to work.

“Be as tall as me soon, baby girl.”

And no one seemed to realize just how terrible being tall really was. And it just got worse because she just kept growing. Awkward and clumsy and three times too tall. She was a walking disaster, running into things and knocking things over while everybody laughed.

In the eighth grade, she had fallen in love with one of her classmates, a friend of Jason’s and T.B’s who would hang out with them sometimes. Kevin had been nice to her, if a little inattentive, but she had been certain he was the one for her.

It had taken her months to work up the courage. She certainly hadn’t told Jason or T.B her plans (they were great but they were _boys_ ) and one summer day she had confessed her feelings to Kevin in the park outside her home.

“What?!” he had exclaimed, horrified. “I can’t date you, you’re taller than me! That’s gross!”

And then he had run away and Berry’s heart had broken. On the plus side, as soon as Jason and T.B. found out (and Kevin, idiot that he was, had been the one to tell them) they had beat him up and swore never to hang out with him again. 

Of course, they had been grounded for the next two weeks which meant it was like Berry had been grounded too. Without Jason and T.B., who else did she have? She moped around the house the entire time until her friends were set free.

And every year, when the school year started, she’d think to herself, ‘this is it, it’s going to get better’ but then she’d just get taller so even if the boys grew, it didn’t matter. She was still the tallest person in her grade.

She spend her first two years of high school slouching and hiding in the back of her class, Jason and T.B surrounding her like body guards. Certainly didn’t try to date or even talk to other boys and her mother seemed a little worried about her. Berry went out and bought all those girl magazines that were supposed to teach you how to be pretty and put on makeup while locked away in her room.

She always washed it off afterwards because no amount of makeup was going to make her shorter. She grew her hair out, hoping it would make her look more like the women on the covers of those magazines. Jason and T.B seemed utterly baffled with what she was trying to do, but supported her anyway, complimenting her when she wore dresses and buying her sparkly hair clips for her birthday.

It didn’t help; the girls still made fun of her, the boys still ignored her.

Her junior year she said ‘fuck it’.

She cut off all her hair, tried out for the football team and made it in and if anybody made a snide comment about her height, they met her fist.

By her senior year, she stomped around in combat boots that gave her an extra three and a half inches, was the star of their football team, and wore pink lipstick like the badge of courage it was. She was also on probation with her school, saying if she got into one more fight, they were kicking her out.

Her parents weren’t too pleased with that, even if Jason and T.B. had high-fived her over the warning letter. And that was why she was over at Von Hamelin because for some reason her father thought if she helped out with kids ‘who were actually doing things with their life that didn’t involve physical violence’, it would teach her some sort of valuable lesson.

Besides, he added, it would look good on your college applications.

Further proof her dad had no idea how high school worked. These kids were ten times more vicious than any football player she had come across. Vicious, ruthless and cruel, all squabbling for something called first chair. 

Berry had no clue, didn’t want to know, simply kept her head down and helped Mrs. Dotson, the music theory teacher. She was a friend of her father’s which is how Berry ended up here in the first place. Mrs. Dotson ran some after school program for underprivileged children. Teaching them music and letting them play instruments. 

Secretly, Berry found it fun. All the kids were under the age of five and so excited to get to bang on drums or shake maracas. And they loved how tall Berry was, always asking her to scoop them up in her arms and zoom them about. She’d never admit that to her dad, of course. Always sulked whenever he asked her how it was going and acted like it was the most horrible thing in the world.

She was just leaving Von Hamelin, program done for the day, walking out the door and outside when someone slammed into her. She barely budged of course, but the guy nearly fell over and with lightning fast reflexes Berry caught his arm and held him up.

The guy blinked up at her and she had just registered that he was attractive in a blond preppie sort of way when he jerked his arm out of her grasp.

“Watch were you’re going, you fucking sasquatch.” he sneered, before shoving past her and disappearing into the building.

Berry stood there furious and humiliated and seriously considered doing the Roh-hatz like her mother wanted, and using _that_ boy in particular when someone said,

“Don’t listen to him; he’s an asshole.”

She turned, startled, to find a boy her age sitting on top of the brick planter along the front of the building. He was handsome, curly black hair and bright blue eyes and Berry felt herself flush. He had a violin case over one knee.

As she drifted closer, his scent hit her (a Reinegen!) and she felt her features waver for one brief second. It was all he needed, eyes widening even as he scrambled to his feet.

“Don’t go!” she pleaded, pushing the bear down. “I won’t hurt you.”

He stopped, already a few feet away. Reinegen were quick, so quick and that was why she hadn’t noticed him there in the first place. They were masters at hiding, too.

“Jägerbar?” he said warily, still looking ready to flee. She nodded bashfully.

“Non-traditional.” she was quick to tell him, not quite a lie. Her mother and father fought about that constantly but Berry hadn’t really decided one way or another. Honestly? She had other, more important things to worry about. Like surviving high school.

He was frowning at her and even his frown was cute, crinkling the skin between his eyebrows.

“I haven’t seen you here before.”

She shook her head.

“No, I just help with the after school program. You know? Mrs. Dotson.”

She took a few careful steps towards him and when he didn’t run, she beamed at him.

“I’m Berry.”

“Roddy.”

He was eying her curiously like he was trying to figure her out and then, suddenly, he smiled. And if she thought his frown was cute, his smile made her knees want to buckle and her heart do a ridiculous thump in her chest.

“Nice to meet you, Berry.”

Her face was burning, she could feel it. She didn’t know what to do here because, quite frankly, boys still ran from her even if now she sneered at them instead of crying. So she just stood there, blushing furiously as he smiled at her.

“I’ve got to go.” He held up his violin. “Practice.”

She nodded, a little sad that their little meeting was over so quick and he headed for the door, opening it up and stepping through. He stopped in the doorway though, looked over his shoulder.

“Maybe I’ll see you around?”

Berry brightened.

“I’m here every Tuesday and Thursday.”

Roddy grinned.

“Then I’ll see you Thursday.”

And then he was gone, leaving Berry standing there, goofy smile on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

Wednesday night she made cookies, her mother wandering in half way through to look curiously at her.

“What?” she asked, defensively and her mother just shook her head.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just been a while since you’ve made cookies.”

“That’s not true,” she muttered, carefully spooning the perfect amount into little mounds on the pan, “I made some for Jason’s birthday.”

She had learned to bake back when she decided to woo Kevin, because that was what Jägerbars did when they liked someone, they fed them. Her confession had come with a tupperware of cookies, cookies she had eaten all alone while crying in her room over his utterly worthless hide.

Despite the trauma involved, Berry still enjoyed baking and had learned plenty from her mom over the years. She baked pies and cakes, cookies and macaroons. It also made gift giving easy, for their birthdays all Jason and T.B. ever asked for were baked goods.

Her mother ‘hmm’ed in the back of her throat, looking thoughtful. Trying to feel her out, she knew. Her mom always had a sixth sense for these things, always knowing when Berry was up to something. If only her dad was home instead of her mom, he could never figure out a thing.

She stayed stubbornly silent until her mother gave up and left.

The next day after school as she got into her car, T.B. appeared out of no where, sniffing at the air.

“Are those cookies?” he asked, pointing to the tin on her front seat.

“No.” she said shortly, trying to shut the door but he was blocking it.

“Yes, those are!” he exclaimed, trying to reach past her to grab at it. Using the palm of her hand, she shoved him away face first.

“Those are for the kids!”

Another lie-but-not-a-lie. She did make enough for the kids but there was also another tin, tucked under the seat for Roddy. T.B. was rubbing at his nose, over dramatic, the big baby - she hadn’t shoved him that hard.

“Can’t I have one?” he whined and she sighed, opening the tin to grab one.

“Only one. Now I’ve got to go or I’ll be late.”

T.B. brightened, took the cookie eagerly and stuffed it into his mouth as Berry shut her car door. She left him in the parking lot like that, waving goodbye to her as she drove off.

Usually she loved the program and hated it ending but today it seemed interminably long. She kept staring at the clock, slowly ticking closer and closer to the time she would get to see Roddy. When it finally hit five she was out the door like a shot, yelling her goodbyes to the kids over her shoulder.

And then she hovered anxiously outside the entrance, waiting for Roddy. Finally, finally, he appeared, coming round the corner violin case in hand.

“I had extra cookies.” she burst out as soon as he was close enough, shoving the tin into his hand. He took it, startled. “You can have them. They’re chocolate chip.”

And then she ran to her car and drove away.

In retrospect, she could have handled that better.

*

She moped all weekend which was why on Sunday, Jason and T.B. coaxed her over with promises of food and a marathon of the Predator movies. She went because she needed something to feel good about and clever boys that they were, they waited to interrogate her until she was stuffed with pizza and ice cream. In other words, they waited until she was defenseless.

She wasn’t going to tell them anything. Not a word, this was her secret, her weight to bear -

“He probably thinks I’m a weirdo!”

She immediately clamped her hand over her mouth because what? That’s what she got for using a pun.

“What?”

She dropped her hand and slumped over, miserable.

“I met a boy at Von Hamelin and then I was a weirdo.”

Jason and T.B. exchanged glances and then came over and sat on either side of her on the couch.

“I think you’re going to have to give us some more detail than that.”

She confessed all then because there really wasn’t much she didn’t tell them. It didn’t take long because it pretty much _was_ summed up with ‘I met a boy at Von Hamelin and then I was a weirdo’.

“Roddy.” Jason repeated when she was done. “What’s his last name?”

She shrugged. 

“I don’t know.”

“He played a violin, though, right? We know that.” T.B. pointed out reasonably. “We can just ask about a guy named Roddy playing a violin. It’s not like there can be a million Roddys or anything.”

Jason studied her for a moment then slung a companionable arm over her shoulders.

“Look, you gave him cookies and I know for a fact you make delicious cookies. There is no way he isn’t in love with you already. When you see him again, just say you were in a hurry or something.”

T.B. patted her back.

“You’ll see. On Tuesday, he’ll ask you to marry him.”

*

It didn’t work out quite that way but Roddy did smile at her as he handed back her tin.

“Thanks for the cookies. They were really good.”

She flushed with pleasure.

“Thank you. I always worry I’ll put too many chocolate chips in the them.”

His eyes widened.

“Did you make those?” he asked, sounding impressed and she nodded and shuffled her feet a little.

“Wow, that’s cool that you bake.”

“I also make pies.”

A thought occurred to her.

“Do you like pie? What flavor?”

He seemed a little taken back from the question as if he wasn’t expecting it.

“Uh, yeah. Cherry, I guess.”

“I’ll make you cherry pie on Thursday!” she said brightly and he looked a little poleaxed.

“You don’t have to do that…”

“No, I want to. I’ll see you here Thursday, okay?”

She was already heading to her car, trying to remember which ingredients she had at home and which ones she had to buy. She waved to him cheerfully, images of freshly baked pies dancing in her head.

*

“His name is Roddy Geiger.” Jason announced as he entered the living room where Berry and T.B. sat playing a video game. “He’s like some sort of genius at the violin and he gets into a lot of fights, so that’s one thing you two have in common. His dad is a rat catcher and he lives in a trailer by the bridge. He and some chick named Sarah had a thing but she dumped him for some quote blond asshole unquote, so he’s single. Also, his favorite color is blue.”

Berry hit pause, ignoring T.B.’s outraged cry, to turn to stare at Jason.

“How-?”

“I have my sources.” 

He flung himself on the sofa and T.B. snorted.

“You act like you have some sort of underground information network. A friend of our cousin goes to Von Hamelin.” T.B. said, wincing when Jason smacked him in the back of the head and then retaliating.

“Don’t give away my secrets!”

“Is that all true?” Berry demanded, ignoring their roughhousing. Jason pushed T.B.’s elbow out of his face.

“Well, I lied about his favorite color but the rest of it is true. He’s single.”

Berry couldn’t stop the grin on her face, jumping and zooming around the room in excitement as Jason and T.B. just smiled fondly at her.

(She had given Roddy the cherry pie on Thursday and he had accepted it, but Jason had warned her that he wasn’t a Jägerbar, so that accepting food gifts didn’t exactly mean the same thing as it did for them. If they had both been Jägerbars, accepting the gift meant accepting the suitor. Berry hadn’t even known if he was dating anybody which made it all a moot point anyway.

“Cherry pie?” T.B. had repeated, scowling. “Just what is he implying?”

She had tackled him down with a shriek and twisted his arm behind his back until he cried uncle.)

Finding out he was single just opened the door to so many wonderful possibilities.


	3. Chapter 3

Tuesdays and Thursdays were fast becoming Berry’s favorite days. She practically left the music program skipping because she knew she’d get to spend a few precious seconds with Roddy. It did kind of suck that he showed up just as she was leaving but she’d take what she could get.

Better than nothing, right?

And then one Thursday, as she was skipping out the door, she was brought up short by the sight of Roddy with another girl. Well, okay not _with_ with another girl, but they were deep in conversation and from their body language it was easy to tell it was something big.

Berry’s feet seemed to move of their own accord so that she found herself drifting over to where they were, the least subtle movement in the history of the world.

“I’m sorry, Roddy.” the girl was saying as Berry got closer. The girl turned and stopped, surprised at how close Berry was hovering and then moved past to go into the building. Berry looked at Roddy, who was glaring off into the distance, a muscle in his jaw jumping.

“Girlfriend?” she asked timidly and he just shook his head.

“Ex.” he said, bitterly. “We broke up and she claimed there wasn’t anybody else and then today I find out she’s dating Brimley, that son of a bitch.”

‘Brimley’ she mouthed, trying to imprint that name on her psyche. Roddy let out a deep breath, still looking so tense and unhappy.

“You want me to beat them up?” she offered, at a loss of what else to say. “I can do that. I don’t think I’d get suspended because it’s not on my school grounds.”

That seemed to snap him right out of it, his eyes finally going to her as he stared in consternation.

“Beat them up?”

“I guess not?” she said doubtfully, the tone of his voice was just a little horrified. She bit her lip, maybe she had been too forward? Maybe offering to beat people up was like a first date kind of thing. She should have asked her mother.

Roddy suddenly chuckled, consternation morphing into something like affection.

“Thanks for the offer, Berry, but I think I’m good.” At her disappointed look, he came over, knocked her arm with his shoulder. “How about this? I ever need somebody handled, I promise to call you straight away.”

Berry beamed at him.

“It’s a deal!” 

*

After that, Roddy hung out with her a little longer than before, waiting until the last possible moment before running in for practice. They talked as much as they could in their little window of opportunity, Berry about football and the after school program, Roddy about the violin and going to Von Hamelin.

She talked about how her dad wanted her to become a lawyer just like him and her mom wanted her to become a bear and live in the woods or something, she wasn’t quite sure. Roddy laughed at that.

“Pretty sure she doesn’t want that.”

“Probably not,” Berry admitted, “But that’s all I hear. I kind of like-”

She broke off, embarrassed and Roddy poked her in her side. They were sitting side by side on the brick planters, right where she had seen Roddy for the first time.

“You like what? Come on, you can tell me.”

“I kind of like working with the kids.” she admitted, ducking her head.

“Nothing wrong with that. You could become a teacher.”

“I don’t know.” Berry said, unsure. “It would be something nobody in my family had ever done before. Jägerbars don’t really go into teaching.”

Roddy snorted.

“Who cares what your family did before? Try something new, you’ll never know unless you try it.” 

Berry smiled softly, staring down at her boots.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Yeah.”

*

She was just unlocking her car when Roddy came back out of the building, violin case hefted over one shoulder. She perked up when she saw him and hurried over to him. He graced her with a smile as she came up, calling out as she got closer,

“Practice was canceled.”

“Oh.”

Here was her chance, she could ask him on a date or-

“Want to get milkshakes?” she blurted out and was immediately horrified. Milkshakes? What was this, the nineteen fifties? Why milkshakes? She didn’t even like milkshakes, she preferred ice cream sundaes, covered in chocolate syrup. Roddy was blinking at her.

“Milkshakes? Uh, yeah, sure.”

Oh.

She didn’t think he’d actually say yes.

“Did you want to follow me in your car? Or I could drive and bring you back or I guess, the other way around? You drive and bring me back?”

She was babbling, she knew it she just didn’t know how to _stop_ it.

“Uh,” he started shifting on his feet, eyes darting about like he was embarrassed. “I don’t have a car.”

Berry brightened. 

“Oh, that makes it easy! We can just go in my car.”

Grabbing his wrist, she began to haul him towards the car, chattering a mile a minute.

“I don’t have to go home right away, how about you? Is the violin hard to play? You make it sound so easy. We own a piano but all it does is sit there. When I was little, I used to climb on top of it and pretend it was a boat. I would be the captain and Jason would be the first mate. For some reason T.B. always wanted to be the parrot so he would sit on the bench and scream ‘Polly wants some crackers!’ over and over again until one of us punched him.”

By then, Roddy was climbing into the passenger seat as she buckled herself into the driver’s.

“Jason? T.B.?”

“My friends! We’ve been friends for as far back as I can remember. They live right next door.”

She started the car and then realized she had no idea where they were going.

“So,” she asked, “Where to?”

He threw his head back and laughed and usually when people laughed at her, Berry just saw red but with Roddy… It was nice, his laugh. Warmed her up from the bottom of her toes to the tips of her ears. He slowed to a chuckle, turning the sweetest smile her way and she knew that he would never laugh _at_ her, just with her.

“I have no idea, Berry.” And oh, the little thrill that gave her, her name on his lips. “You’re the one who invited me out for milkshakes.”

Oh. Right. She racked her mind.

“I don’t actually know any good milkshake places.”

He laughed again, leaned back on the seat.

“How about Jamba Juice, then? There’s one a couple blocks over.”

That was easy! Following his directions, they got there fairly quickly, Berry parking and the two of them entering the brightly colored shop.

She stared up at the menu. Truth be told, she didn’t really ever go to any of these places. Her mother loved them but Berry didn’t really care either way. Mostly she never went because Jason and T.B. had some weird thought in their heads that drinking smoothies somehow made them less than men. It didn’t make any sense but sometimes Berry let them hold on to their sad delusions because it took too long to convince them otherwise.

“What’s an acai?” she wondered aloud and Roddy grinned at her, bumped her arm with his shoulder.

“I’ve no idea.”

“I’ll get that then.” she decided. “Try new things, right?”

So they ordered, Berry getting something called an Acai Antioxidant Superfruit Shot which honestly sounded like something from one of those movies on the SyFy channel that T.B. loved so much. Roddy got a Chocolate Moo’d.

They sat at one of those little tables and Berry took a sip.

Berry didn’t like acai. 

She stared sadly at her drink, wondering if it was rude to throw it away. The person who had made her the drink was _right there_. She would feel bad if she saw someone throw away her cookies. Maybe she could just pretend to drink it.

Roddy’s hand tapped her’s and she looked up, startled out of her sad contemplation. He was holding out his drink to her.

“You don’t look like you like yours. Here. We’ll trade.”

He was trading _food_ with her. Berry might have had hearts in her eyes.

*

Things only got weird when they were back in her car.

“Where do you live? I can drop you off at home.”

Roddy had ducked his head, refused to meet her eyes. He seemed oddly skittish, almost embarrassed but Berry had no idea what he’d be so embarrassed about.

“Just drop me off at Von Hamelin.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, looking out the window. “It’s pretty dark.”

“No, Von Hamelin is fine. Just drop me off in the parking lot.”

So she had, reluctantly leaving him there and watching as he disappeared into the dark.

The next day, she had asked Jason and T.B. about it.

“Hmm.” T.B. said, tapping his chin. “Maybe he likes walking.”

Jason yawned.

“Maybe he already felt like less than a man for drinking a smoothie and couldn’t stand the thought of a girl taking him home.”

T.B. nodded.

“Oh yeah. I forgot about the smoothie thing. Yeah, that’s probably it. His manhood couldn’t take much more.”

Both boys shook their heads sadly, their strange little belief in the power of the smoothie still as strong as ever.

Berry sighed. Sometimes she worried about their think tank. She just had this idea that maybe they should have gotten a smart member for their group.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Contains some bullying/misogynistic language.

On Thursday Berry walked into Mrs. Dotson’s class to find Roddy, bending low to help one of the kids with a recorder.

She froze in the door way, just staring, wondering if she’d gone delirious. Then Roddy glanced up, saw her and smiled, straightening and then coming her way.

“Hey, Berry.”

She squeaked.

He cocked his head to one side.

She squeaked again and one of the little girls running by stopped and clapped her hands.

“Do it again, Miss Berry!” because that was what Mrs. Dotson insisted they call her.

“You know,” Roddy said, clearly amused. “You’d think I would be the one doing that, not you.”

“What are you doing here?” she finally managed to choke out, face as red as a tomato. Roddy shrugged, small smile playing on his lips.

“Just thought I’d try something new.”

“Look!” the same little girl cried, clapping delightedly. “Miss Berry, you’re all red!”  
*

Roddy was good with the kids and Mrs. Dotson was thrilled to have two helpers with her in the class. And then, near the end, Roddy had pulled out his violin and played.

The kids had gathered around him, sitting cross-legged on the floor and Berry had joined them, utterly entranced by the music he was playing. She had never heard him before, never had thought about it, despite the fact that every time she saw him, he had his violin case.

He was amazing.

He was something she didn’t have words for, the song he created from his violin sparking something so deep within her she wasn’t even certain it had existed until she heard him play. She listened, rapt, unable to take her eyes off of him and when the song finished, she clapped the loudest of all.

*

They helped clean up after all the kids had left and had just walked into the parking lot when Roddy realized he had forgotten his jacket.

“Be right back.” he told her, jogging back into the building.

She was waiting patiently for him when a blond boy showed up, two friends in tow. She looked them over, unimpressed. The blond seemed vaguely familiar and she squinted at him, trying to place him. Blah, she couldn’t remember. Oh well.

They hadn’t said anything to her yet, whispering amongst themselves, the boy with the hipster glasses saying ‘Brimley, let’s just go, this is a bad idea.’ just loud enough for her to hear.

Brimley? Berry ears perked up. Didn’t that Sarah girl leave Roddy for a Brimley? She narrowed her eyes at him. Wow, seriously? Somebody chose this guy over Roddy? The blond guy obviously thought he was hot, jutting his hip out and raking her from head to toe in what she supposed he thought was a seductive move.

“I see Roddy’s managed to pull himself some sweet meat.”

Wow. Berry rolled her eyes and debated punching him in the face or just ignoring him. Choices, choices. But he was going on.

“Roddy’s a loser, babe. I just thought someone should let you know. His dad is a fucking rat catcher-”

The two boys behind him laughed as if on cue, like they were some sort of syndicated audience.

“- he’s trash even if he does go to this school.”

Berry cocked her head at him, looked at him askance.

“Yeah,” she said, sounding bored. “Not that impressed. You can go now.”

His face turned ugly but quick, mouth a sneering gash.

“Fuck you, bitch. I was trying to give your dumb ass a head’s up. You’re a goddamned freak anyway.”

He moved towards her as if he was going to shove her and she just arched an eyebrow. He stopped before he came too near, of course. He was a bully; Berry knew bullies. He was just trying to scare her, intimidate her. Figured that since she was a girl, she’d run off crying.

“You’re just pissed that Roddy’s first chair.” she said cooly and then added, because even if she had never heard this guy play, there was no way he was better than Roddy, “Everybody knows you can’t hold a candle to him.”

His face went red and he went towards her again, this time his friends grabbing him by the arm and hauling him back. Well, that was a direct hit, obviously.

“Fuck you!” he screamed, spit flying everywhere while his friends tried to get him to calm down. “I have more talent in these hands then he has in his whole body! He’s a piece of shit! Trash! I’ll get his ass kicked out of Von Hamelin and then I’ll be first chair, like I deserve to be!”

Berry’s rage had always run red-hot, every fight she had been in had been tinged with red, had been quick, explosive bursts of anger. Now though, fury ran through her blood like ice, made her sharp and dangerous and deadly calm. This guy was threatening _Roddy_.

Nobody did that.

“And if I break those hands of yours, pretty boy, will you still be able to play?”

Brimley paled, anger fading from his face as he took a step back. Seemed he wasn’t as stupid as he looked, actually figured out that Berry wasn’t just talking trash.

“I could hurt you so bad.” she said softly, voice so quietly menacing that she surprised even herself. “Maybe you should run.”

For one split second, everything was silent, those boys weren’t even breathing and then Brimley broke first, turning and sprinting away at a dead run. The others were right on his heels, shooting around the building and disappearing around a corner.

Berry laughed, adrenaline racing through her system when she turned around and found herself face to face with Roddy. He wasn’t looking at her, was staring in the direction those three boys had gone and Berry felt her stomach drop.

“I wouldn’t have- I mean, I -” she was stuttering, stammering, just didn’t want Roddy to think she was an animal, some mad and dangerous bear. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes.

He pulled his gaze to her, taking a second to register the raw emotion on her face.

‘Hey, hey, no.” He reached over and took her hands as she sniffled. “I’m sure those assholes deserved it. Whatever it is they said to you, just ignore it.”

“They were talking about you,” she admitted and Roddy seemed surprised. “They were saying you were no good.”

His surprise cleared.

“Oh, yeah. We don’t exactly get along.”

The fact they were still holding hands seemed to hit them at the same time, both of them letting go. Roddy’s cheeks were faintly flushed while Berry was certain her entire face was bright red.

“Seriously, though, Berry. Next time they talk trash about me, just let them. Doesn’t matter.”

She scowled, embarrassment forgotten.

“It matters!” she insisted. “Nobody should talk about you like that. Nobody! You’re so talented, and amazing, and a million times better than anybody else at this school!”

She was pacing, flinging her hands up in the air and then spinning to face him, planting her hands firmly on her hips.

“People like them? They don’t stop unless you make them stop. Believe me, I know. I used to get bullied all the time, still do sometimes but you? Roddy, someone like you should never be bullied. You’re perfect.”

The amount of sheer longing in those last two words shut her up because she hadn’t meant to say it and she stopped to stare at the ground. She didn’t want to see Roddy’s face, didn’t want to see his reaction. How she felt about him had been packed in those two words and her whole body ached with it.

He moved closer, she could see him in the periphery of her vision, hear his shoes on the pavement. He came close, so close she could feel the warmth of his body and she still refused to look up. He took her hands again.

“You shouldn’t get bullied either, Berry. You’re perfect too, just the way you are.”

He reached up, tugged her face down and she went, utterly bewildered at what he was doing until his mouth touched her’s.

Oh. Oh.

He was kissing her. She pressed her mouth to his eagerly, clumsily, because she had never done this before. It was clumsy and awkward and the height difference certainly didn’t help but still.

Perfect.

It was a chaste kiss and when he pulled away, they were both smiling softly.

“Hey.” she said, voice dopey and pleased.

“Hey.” he said right back. “Would you like to go on a date with me?”

She nodded bashfully and he kissed her again.

*

Berry was tearing through her closet, tossing clothes all over the floor.

“Honestly,” Jason said from where he was sprawled on her bed. “Wear what you always wear. You’ll look fine.”

She popped her head out of the closet to glare at him.

“You probably think you’re being helpful but you really, really aren’t.”

He sighed, dropped his head to the mattress.

“Dear god, the things I put up for you. How about that sweater buttony thing, the light grey one?”

“My cardigan?” she asked and he made a face.

“Yeah, sure, if that’s what it’s called. Oh and wear a tank top underneath it and don’t button it all the way up so he can see your boobs.”

“Wow.” she said, flatly. “Really?”

He was more animated now, snapping his fingers as he sat up.

“Yeah, that one tank top with the lacy bits. Your boobs look really nice in that one, the whole team agrees.”

Berry made a mental note to tackle her teammates, Jason included, a little more harder than usual next practice.

T.B. was over at at her vanity, pawing through one of her jewelry boxes.

“Here.” he said, tossing something at her and she caught it automatically. When she looked in her hand it was a blue butterfly hair clip.

“It’ll bring out your eyes.” he explained and she smiled at him.

“Thanks.”

*

Berry wore the outfit but buttoned her cardigan nearly to the top. There, her triumphant gaze had said to Jason, I look like a lady.

But now as she waited for Roddy and became more and more nervous, she quickly undid two more buttons.

There. Her boobs did look nice like that.

Roddy came walking up right then and she flailed, worried that he had seen her unbutton her cardigan. 

“I’m hot!”

He stopped, blinked at her.

“My sweater.” she explained nervously. “I was hot that was why I unbuttoned my sweater.”

His eyes dropped to her chest when she said sweater and then shot right back up to her face, his eyes a little wide and a blush staining his cheeks. Wow. Her boobs must look really nice like this. Maybe she owed Jason cookies or something.

Roddy cleared his throat, face still a little pink.

“I, uh was thinking we could go get ice cream first and see what we want to do from there. They’re doing some music in the park thing, we could check that out.”

“Ice cream sounds good!” Berry agreed enthusiastically. “My favorite ice cream shop is around the corner from here.”

Roddy smiled.

“Yeah, I know.”

At her puzzled look he laughed a little, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Your friends might have told me so.”

“My friends?” she repeated, furrowing her brow.

“Jason and T.B.”

“When did you meet them?” she asked, bewildered. The laugh he let out was a little strangled sounding.

“When they hunted me down at Von Hamelin and told me if I broke your heart, there’d be hell to pay.”

“Oh my god.”

Berry was horrified and ten seconds from hunting Jason and T.B. down so she could murder them.

“I am so sorry.”

“I’m not.”

That brought her up short and when she cocked her head at him, he went on.

“I’m glad you have friends who take care of you, the way you deserve to be taken care of. You’re precious, Berry and the more people who know it the better. ”

“Oh.”

He grinned at her.

‘Yeah, oh. Now let’s go get our ice cream.”

He reached over, casually took her hand and began to move forward. The fact that Berry didn’t move an inch made him stop to look at her.

“You okay?”

She gaped at him.

“Are you sure you want to hold hands?” she asked, even as her grip on his fingers tightened. She really didn’t want to let go.

He cocked his head to the side, like he was confused.

“Yeah, why else would I grab it?”

She felt herself redden.

“People will know we’re on a date. They might make fun of you because I’m so tall.”

Roddy boggled at her for a second and then laughed, shaking his head.

“You know,” he said sounding bemused. “I have to admit, it’s usually the other way around. Girls usually don’t want to be seen with me, not vice versa.”

Berry beared out.

“People making fun of you?” she asked dangerously and he held up the hand not holding her’s.

“Calm down.”

He dropped the hand, shrugged, looking off into the distance, careful not to catch her eye.

“I don’t have the most money, okay?

“So?” she asked blankly, “Who cares about that?”

He jerked his head around to her’s, finally locking eyes and she waited patiently for him to explain. Then he shut his eyes, shook his head slightly, small smile playing on his lips. He opened his eyes and they were still the prettiest blue Berry had ever seen.

“You’re right. Who cares about that? And who cares how tall you are? Any guy would be lucky to be seen with you, you’re beautiful. Come on, Berry. Let’s go on our date.”

He squeezed her fingers and they strolled down the sidewalk, hand in hand.


End file.
